We didn’t make the greatest music videos in Canada in the 1980s but we did one great thing that remains just as remarkable today as it was then. In 1988, in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the entirety of the country’s abortion law was unconstitutional because it asserted that the woman’s capacity to reproduce was to be subject, not to her own control, but to that of the state” which is essentially a breach of the woman’s right to security of the person, guaranteed under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It’s 24 years later conservatives have never given up the fight to reserve that ruling and women continue to fight for their right to keep control of their bodies away from the state and in their own hands. For those of us who believe in liberty and equality as a basic principle of life, this latest challenge by conservatives against the rights of women is a challenge to us all.
